1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety urging system for a self-propelled vehicle, a safety urging method for a self-propelled vehicle, and an information processing program for urging safety, for outputting information to urge a driver to drive safely in communication areas, based on travel information indicating the states of vehicles traveling communication areas including intersections transmitted from roadside communication equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to prevent collision with other vehicles or pedestrians approaching from different directions when a vehicle reaches near a blind intersection, there has been provided a road-vehicle communication system to alert the driver of such a situation, conventionally. The conventional road-vehicle communication system includes on-vehicle communication equipment provided to a vehicle and roadside communication equipment provided to near intersections or high accident areas. It is so configured that when vehicles or pedestrians are approaching from different directions at intersections, the on-vehicle communication equipment wirelessly obtains approaching information transmitted from the roadside communication equipment. Note that the conventional road-vehicle communication system is not used in every road, and even in roads where it is used, the system is not used in every intersection.
The conventional road-vehicle communication system described above is used at intersections in a mixed manner. Therefore, in this system, drivers get used to the services in roads where the system is used frequently, so if there is no alarm at intersections where it is not used, drivers mistakenly believe that safety is secured. This causes a problem of lack of proper attention to safety driving.
Further, in the conventional road-vehicle communication system, on-vehicle communication equipment provided to a vehicle is always activated in order to receive information to urge safety driving at intersections, so a problem of waste in power consumption has been caused.
On the other hand, no prior publication has been found for art solving the problems described above at present. As art close thereto (art utilizing the road-vehicle communication system), a drive supporting device providing, to drivers, information about capability of overtaking or appropriateness of overtaking is disclosed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-149402 (Patent Document 1)). Further, an on-vehicle map display device which displays congested roads accurately by clearly indicating whether the road is monitored for traffic congestion is disclosed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 04-299379 (Patent Document 2)).
However, the device of Patent Document 1 (driver supporting device), among the known art, is one which provides information about capability of overtaking and appropriateness of overtaking to a driver, and is not to prevent collisions when two vehicles met at intersections. Further, the device of Patent Document 2 (on-vehicle map display device) is for displaying congested roads accurately by clearly indicating whether the road is monitored for congestion, and is not intended to prevent accidents such as collisions when two vehicles met at intersections.